61 pages • 2 hours read
Judy BlumeForever...
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1975A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Birth Control Pill
The birth control pill, or “The Pill,” is a powerful symbol in the text representing Katherine’s evolving sexual identity, empowerment, and responsibility. Blume is frank in her explanations of why she wrote Forever…, explaining that she wanted to write a story in which the young adult characters could engage in healthy and responsible sex. As the protagonist who begins the text having never had sex before, Katherine feels a strong desire to have sex but wants to be emotionally and physically prepared. When she goes to Planned Parenthood to obtain birth control, she tells her social worker: “I think it’s my responsibility to make sure I don’t get pregnant” (125). This reasoning illustrates that Katherine understands how important sexual health is, and that it is her responsibility to prevent pregnancy.
As much as The Pill is a symbol of sexual responsibility, it is also a symbol of sexual freedom and exploration. Once on birth control, Katherine and Michael’s sexual relationship evolves and becomes more pleasurable for Katherine. When they first begin having sex, Michael often orgasms quickly, leaving Katherine wondering “if it would ever work out right between us” (140). But the more they practice, using safe sex practices, the more at ease they both feel, and Katherine achieves sexual pleasure from sex: “I moved with him, again and again and again—and at last, I came. [...] I started laughing. ‘I came…’ I told him. ‘I actually came’” (140). While part of their success is due to their continued practice with one another, a realistic depiction of how couples need to learn from one another to enjoy sex with each other, the freedom Katherine feels from taking birth control contributes to her sexual enjoyment and enables her to achieve new levels of sexual gratification.
Katherine’s Necklace
For Katherine’s 18th birthday, Michael gives her a necklace with her name inscribed on one side and “Forever…Michael” (134) written on the other. The necklace is immediately sentimental and meaningful to Katherine: “He fastened the chain around my neck and kissed me. I looked down at the silver disk, touched it and said, ‘In my whole life nothing will ever mean more to me’” (134). The necklace’s “Forever…” message is an evocation of the first night they slept in the same bed and promised one another “Forever” (79). The necklace symbolizes the all-consuming passion of first love, which Michael and Katherine fall in quickly, but also the fragility and long-term impracticality of first love.
At the time, Michael and Katherine earnestly agree to make their relationship work across time and distance, planning how they will continue to be together even after they go to separate colleges in the fall. Katherine is devastated that their separation comes even sooner, when she spends seven weeks instructing tennis at a camp. With distance, suddenly “forever” feels like an impossibly long time. When Katherine meets Theo, a fellow counselor, he asks her: “‘What’s forever supposed to mean?’ ‘What do you think?’ [...]. ‘I think forever’s one hell of a long time for a kid like you’” (187). Katherine’s attraction to Theo develops to the point that she kisses him and decides that she can no longer be with Michael.
In their breakup scene, Katherine tries to give back the necklace, a symbol of their love and promise: “I took off my necklace and held it out to him. My throat was too tight to talk. [...] ‘What am I supposed to do with a necklace that says Katherine?’ [...] He picked up my pocketbook and dropped the necklace into it” (205-06). In Michael’s refusal, he points out that he will have no need for a necklace that reads “Katherine” any longer and places the necklace back in her purse. The symbol loses its meaning here and becomes another object, something that can be discarded in the bottom of a handbag.
Although the necklace no longer carries meaning for Katherine at the end of the text, the memories she made with Michael endure. When runs into him again one last time before leaving for college, she reflects and realizes that she does not regret their time together: “What we had was very special. Maybe if we were ten years older it would have worked out differently. Maybe. I think it’s just that I’m not ready for forever” (208). The necklace may no longer hold meaning, but her memories will.
Sybil’s Pregnancy
Sybil’s pregnancy is an important motif within the text. Sybil and her pregnancy signify the changing sexual attitudes and societal mores around sex. Katherine explains how society during her parents’ generation would have treated Sybil: “In the old days girls were divided into two groups—those who did and those who didn’t. [...] Nice girls didn’t, naturally” (37). Katherine describes Sybil in the first line of the text: “Sybil Davison has a genius I.Q. and has been laid by at least six different guys” (3). By describing Sybil as both intelligent and highly sexual, the text establishes that girls no longer need to be one or the other: Sybil can be both.
When Sybil does become pregnant, Sybil is not shamed or punished for her pregnancy. Sybil’s pregnancy is surprising news to Katherine and Erica, but they do not resort to condemning her actions or placing a moral judgment on Sybil’s situation. Through discussing Sybil’s pregnancy, Erica and Katherine are able to articulate their own beliefs that, were they to become pregnant themselves before they were ready to care for a child, they would like to pursue an abortion: “‘I’d have an abortion…wouldn’t you?’ ‘In a minute…’” (146). The girls’ insistence that they would pursue an abortion speaks to changing sexual attitudes about abortion and teen pregnancy in the post-Roe v. Wade world in which Blume wrote Forever…. With this new opportunity to determine the outcome of an unwanted pregnancy, the girls do not have to live with the fear of getting pregnant and completely derailing their plans for their futures.
The novel treats Sybil with sympathy as she expresses the challenge of knowing that her decision to place her baby for adoption is the right one, while still mourning the loss of the child she carried: “I hope she has a good life…” (169). Despite this emotional burden, Sybil’s life will not cease to progress as she pursues higher education at Smith College in the fall: “I’m getting an IUD so I won’t get pregnant again because I’ve no intention of giving up sex…but the next time I have a baby I want to make sure I can keep it” (168). The lesson Sybil learns from her pregnancy is not that she should abstain from sex altogether, nor will Sybil’s future plans be radically altered because she sustained a pregnancy. Instead, Sybil has gained new insight and responsibility for her sexual safety and health, and is better prepared to continue having sex moving forward in a responsible way that puts her in control of her reproductive decisions.
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By Judy Blume
